CHENNAI: On Tamil New Year’s Day, BJP state president K Annamalai released to public the first part of his ‘DMK files’ that levelled corruption allegations against the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. In it, he alleged key DMK leaders having amassed assets worth over Rs 1.34 lakh crore through corrupt means.
Days after his ‘expose’, I-T department officials under CRPF security cover swooped on properties linked to G Square across the state in connection with a tax evasion case. The realty group is allegedly linked to the DMK’s first family. The Stalin-led government that is part of the INDIA alliance taking on the BJP at the centre continued to face the heat from central investigative agencies for the remainder of the year, among which was the arrest of a sitting minister in a ‘cash-for-jobs’ scam.
While the I-T searches linked to G Square did not reveal much, the first minister to be checkmated by central agencies was V Senthil Balaji when the Supreme Court allowed the Enforcement Directorate to probe the allegations against him in the ‘cash-for-jobs’ scam during the AIADMK regime. Balaji was transport minister during 2011-16 when the alleged scam took place. Following this, the ED held searches -- even at the minister’s office in the secretariat -- in June before arresting him late night on the 14th.
In July, it was then higher education minister K Ponmudy who faced the ED’s heat next as properties linked to him and his MP son Gautham Sigamani in Chennai and Villupuram were searched. The case pertains to allegations that Ponmudy violated quarry licence conditions during his tenure as mines minister in the DMK-led government between 2006 and 2011. The case was moved by the AIADMK government led by J Jayalalithaa in 2011. While the minister was subsequently taken to the ED’s office at Shastri Bhavan for inquiries and released later, sources said it was unclear what evidence the agency accumulated against him. The minister and his wife have now been convicted in a Rs 1.7-crore disproportionate assets case.
Another minister under the ED’s scanner is Fisheries Minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan in connection with a pending disproportionate assets case registered against him for alleged violations as part of the AIADMK’s regime from 2001 to 2006. Similarly, PWD Minister EV Velu was subject to I-T action after the department held searches in around 40 properties across the state linked to him and his family. Condemning the searches, minister Udhayanidhi Stalin said central agencies have become the BJP’s “wings”.
More trouble brewed when ED officials entered the Water Resources Department engineer-in-chief’s office at Chepauk and allegedly took away files pertaining to sand mining operations. The agency as part of its probe into illegal sand mining also issued summons allegedly without intimating the department higher-ups, prompting the state to amend its Government Servants’ Conduct Rules. Now, inquiries with state officials can be held only after prior notice and permission from their superiors.
Central-state agency ties took a further hit with the arrest of Ankit Tiwari, an official attached to the sub-zonal ED office in Madurai, by the Tamil Nadu police’s anti-corruption wing in December on charges of bribery. The BJP and right-wing factions labelled the arrest an act of vengeance by the government. With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year, it is learnt that the tussle will continue.